Mangroves as important coastal communities of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean: their ecophysiology and restoration to enhance sustainability and avert degradation.

The mangrove species Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa and Rhizophora mangle may grow as stunted shrubs (80 ppt) when water flows are interrupted by roads, dikes and highways or lagoon inlets are closed after hurricanes, especially in karstic environments. Environmental services such as nitrogen fixation and carbon storage are lost by denitrification, the decomposition of roots (causing the collapse of soils) and of aboveground wood when mangroves die or suffer chronic damage. Such losses are difficult and expensive to recover even after restoration measures, such as recovering hydrological flows, are executed. Physical mangrove restoration done other areas of the Gulf of Mexico and in Panama, is at an early stage in Mexico.